Study Confirms Associate Hiring Plummet

The news about associate deferrals, layoffs and the lack of new attorney positions is showing up in some rather grim statistics for new lawyers.  The National Association for Law Placement released its study Perspectives on Fall Recruiting which indicates that summer associate and new attorney hiring are at their lowest levels in 17 years.  The report shows a downturn in 2009 in all categories that measure legal market strength for new lawyers.

• NALP's report  reveals that,  "All of the markers that measure the strength of the legal employment market for new lawyers, such as law firm recruiting levels for summer programs and summer program outcomes, fell in 2009, continuing and accelerating the general downward trend in recruiting volumes that was measured in 2008. The drop-off in the numbers in the second year of the recession was steeper than the decrease in volume seen during the first year of the recession, as the recession continued to batter both the economy in general and the legal employment market specifically. Based on information provided by NALP members about fall 2009 recruiting, the market for entry-level legal employment shrank dramatically, especially for current second-year students (2Ls) seeking a position for summer 2010."

Examples include a drop on the median number of offers  at the largest firms from 30 in 2007 to 18 in 2008-now plummeting to only 8 in 2009.  Summer positions were similarly impacted across all firm sizes indicating a drop from an average of 15 spots in 2007, down to 10 in 2008 then falling off to 7 in 2009.

NALP Executive Director James Leipold called this an "enormous interruption in the usual recruiting and employment patterns."  He went on to predict another year or two of slow recruiting before the situation improves, " I don't think anyone expects recruiting volumes to pick up significantly during 2010, though the worst does now seem, we hope, to be behind us."